The present invention relates to improvements in a device for collecting oil floating on the surface of water thereby to remove the oil from the surface.
Recently an increasing number of mishaps have occurred where oil has flowed out to the sea or like water surface. These mishaps are a result of the wreckage of a tanker or breakdown of coastal oil storage tanks or oil refinery equipment. Thus, in order to separate and remove the floating oil spilt over the surface of water, it is customary to confine the oil to a specific locality of the surface area with floating barriers such as an oil fence immediately posterior to each occurrence of such accidents and thereafter absorb the oil by use of a power apparatus such as a vacuum pump or manually draw up each scoopful of oil into receptacles provided for the purpose, or otherwise place a number of oil absorbing mattings sporadically on the water surface area enclosed with the oil fence or the like thereby selectively absorbing the maximum quantity of the spilt oil.
However, according to the conventional method of removing the oil from the water surface by use of a power apparatus or the like, large and expensive equipments must be provided to pump up the oil regardless to the quantity thereof. Thus, it proves to be economically prohibitive to practically employ the equipments, additionally to the disadvantages that it takes lots of time and trouble to tug them as far as the actual scene of the accidents. Further, since these equipments are driven by means of a power source such as a combustion engine, accidental ignition to the oil that is floating on the surface area is liable to be caused by the engine.
Moreover, when the oil is manually drawn up by use of ladles or the like, or absorbed into the oil absorbing mattings placed afloat on the particular oil floating area, all the quantity of the spilt oil cannot be collected from the surface of water as quickly as desired, and especially even when the water surface is slightly rough, use of such matting is very difficult. Further, even in case the oil is manually drawn up by use of ladles or the like, or absorbed by means of the mattings, an operator's clothes and other neighboring things are inevitably soiled with splashes of the oil or spreads of the oil stuck to the mattings, thereby causing pollution of many other surroundings, thus giving rise to a great difficulty and useless expenditure in cleaning the soiled things for reuse later. Referring also to the mattings only, a great number of them are required subject to the effluent quantity of oil and, once used, doomed to be discarded.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned deficiencies seen in the conventional oil removing from the surface of water.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved device for collecting oil on the surface of water having a main body made of non-ventilative and flexible sheet material and transformable from a flatly folded configuration to a three dimensional configuration and vice versa and a plurality of hollow elements also made of non-ventilative and flexible sheet material and inflatable to form a three dimensional rigid truss framework thereby forcibly transforming the main body to a three dimensional configuration so that it can be internally loaded with a negative pressure developing oil sucking function.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved device for collecting oil on the surface of water wherein a plurality of follow elements are disposed within the main body and arranged so as to form a truss framework structure in order to forcibly transform the main body to a three dimensional configuration.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved device for collecting oil on the surface of water which has a diaphragmatic bag disposed within the main body for permitting rapid and upward discharge of the oil collected and contained in the device.
Other objects, advantages and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter; it should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.